Denoir, thanks for the compliment! I use Lightroom then the 'Merge to panorama in Photoshop' tool. I have to reduce the vingette manually in lightroom first as there is no lens correction preset for manual aperture lenses in Lightroom. Save as jpeg then reimport the jpeg back into Lightroom. Photoshop seems to do fine without the vignette or geometric distortion boxes ticked, just takes a while on my laptop.
Only recently learned to save as a jpeg from photoshop otherwise even a 3 image stitch can be as large as 2 gigs as a tiff (which is default in photoshop).
Were these hand held, mechanically registered or Gigapan registered? I've only done single direction stitching so far ... inspiring me to try my hand at a matrix.
Wow, kind of weird but very pleasing tilt-shift experience! Handheld impresses too, do you do this "row-by-row" and would you mind reveal something about the stitch-strategy?
I think I change my pattern each time I do it, I sometimes spiral out from the centre, but I find the most successful way is to stop, calm it down a bit and try to picture the end result before shooting, then pick the top left corner, shoot down, to the right one, then up, then one across, then back down... etc etc until you end up at the bottom right (or opposite corner to which you started) of the final image. It takes a bit of practice and paying attention to the amount of overlap. But after a few attempts I seem to be able to get a pretty neat rectangle image out of the stitch, which usually just needs cropping.
Sometimes there will be a thin strip where my images don't overlap, and when this happens, photoshop content aware fill can sometimes come to the rescue, otherwise you have to try a different crop or ditch the lot!
I had one amazing pano of an overhanging tree over a gravel path, but forgot (or accidentally deleted) the bottom left image and the photo just doesn't work without it which is annoying. So its not without its difficulties! But when it works you most often find it's worth it.
With regards to my stitch strategy, what do you mean? I simply let photoshop handle it with its automation feature
Much appreciated Young! Regarding stitching - I am probably revealing my ignorance here, but... in my few attempts so far (always handheld) I have typically taken the shots row-by-row from left-to-right - floor-by-floor.
Then, when stitching, I have first stiched row one, then row two and so forth. Finally I have stitched all these vertical rows together. But it seem you "dont have to cross the river to get water" in this case (?).
Well, stitching them all at the same time will allow photoshop to establish a vanishing point like the horizton etc. It works on complex algorithms of working out what angle the shots have been taken from to decide how it bends and distorts each seperate image to create a normal looking complete image. So I assume stitching all together might be better, but it may still work for seperate rows which are then stitched together.
Either way, the files get big and my laptop gets slow very fast! I have only been able to stitch between 2 and 5 panos a day as I have to set it up and do something else for maybe an hour or more until its finished stitching. Looking to get a faster computer next year to speed things up a bit.
R.Young wrote:
Try stitching again without ticking the geometric distortion box in photoshop. I think that allows the image to stay straight and not go fisheye
i never tick that box, i do use vignetting correction though.
Alf -- Lovely soft lighting and color rendition in these cemetary shots. Great use of that shallow DOF.
Sebboh -- Terrific shot of the orange brick work and blue chalk kitty!
Jack -- Great shots and illustrative narrative. I'd like to see more from the radio controlled plane if you have any, pano or not. Maybe we need an Aerial Photography thread in the Alt Forum?
